Hidden crisis, who is the most terrifying invasive species on earth?

Some time ago, the topic #Devil's flowers found in many places in Henan# became a hot search on Weibo, and invasive species once again entered people's field of vision.

This yellow flower is Canada goldenrod. In fact, if you pay a little attention, you will find that every autumn, my country will launch a campaign to control the huge harm caused by Canada goldenrod. Canada goldenrod has long been known as an "ecological killer" in my country.

It has well-developed rhizomes, strong reproductive ability, extremely fast propagation speed, and extremely obvious growth advantages. Once it takes root, it can easily begin to grow on a large scale. Such growth advantages cause it to often devour other plants around it. Therefore, some people call it the "devil's flower" that destroys native plants and crops.

Species invasion is an extremely harmful phenomenon. However, not all alien species are harmful. For example, the eggplant, tomato, and pepper that we are familiar with are all alien but harmless species.

"No grass grows where the yellow flower passes" vividly describes the harm of Canada thistle. In fact, looking at the world, the horror of species invasion is far greater than most people think. In my country alone, according to a document released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 660 invasive species have been found in the country, among which there is one that is known as the most terrifying invasive species on the earth - the red fire ant.

01

The most terrifying invasive species on earth

Attack of the Red Fire Ants

In 1916, a Swiss entomologist was conducting an investigation in South America and discovered a fiery red ant he had never seen before. However, ants are a wide variety of species, so this discovery did not attract much attention.

The entomologist never imagined that this unknown ant was the red fire ant, which means invincible ant in Latin, and that it would become a major concern for all mankind a few decades later.

In 1930, some red fire ants living in South America were no longer satisfied with the local environment full of natural enemies, so they boarded an attack ship to North America. Since then, Pandora's box has been opened, and the red fire ants have embarked on a crazy global invasion.

In just a few years, almost half of the land in the United States has been destroyed, and red fire ants have begun to reproduce and spread wildly in the United States.

Currently, red fire ants have occupied the entire southern region of the United States. More than 14 million people are bitten by red fire ants every year, and the United States has been declared conquered.

But the red fire ants' ambitions go far beyond conquering North America. In 2001, some red fire ants boarded ships and began to attack Australia and New Zealand and successfully landed there. They then quickly spread to Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and the Pacific region was declared lost.

In 2004, a report of a red fire ant attack on a person was published in Wuchuan, Guangdong, announcing the official invasion of red fire ants into East Asia. The following year, my country's Ministry of Agriculture and Environment declared war on red fire ants and launched a nationwide blanket investigation, eventually finding the presence of red fire ants in 16 cities in four provinces, with the invasion area reaching 195,000 mu.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment quickly took ant extermination actions to try to prevent the continued expansion of red fire ants, using pesticides and destroying nests... However, these measures are not fatal to the strongest invasive organism on the surface. The queen ants deep underground cannot be affected by drugs and nest destruction.

In 2021, red fire ants have spread to 12 provinces in the south, and the Qinling Mountains have become the last line of defense to prevent the red fire ants from continuing to move north. At the same time, red fire ants have been found in many places in South Korea and Japan.

The above is the terrifying global attack of the red fire ants. So the question is, how serious the harm can be caused by red fire ants with such strong expansion capabilities?

First of all, there is a huge crisis facing local ants. Wherever red fire ants arrive, they can quickly establish a strong ecological advantage, squeeze out and replace local ant species, and ultimately cause a serious decline in local ecosystem diversity.

In our country, there is almost no local ant species that can compete with it. Only the two-toothed multi-thorny ant can barely fight it. It is the only one that has the hope of becoming an ecological guardian against the invasion of red fire ants.

If humans encounter red fire ants, they will be bitten crazily, causing shock at the very least and death at the worst.

The global expansion of the red fire ant is one of the most typical cases of species invasion, but this is not the most terrifying. Australia, far across the ocean, has suffered an even more terrifying invasion nightmare.

02

150 years of species war

Cat and Rabbit Attack

Oceania, represented by Australia, is a lonely continent in a corner of the world. It has a unique ecosystem that is completely different from other regions. But precisely because of this, its ecology is also extremely fragile. With the arrival of humans and the alien species they carry, it is facing the most serious ecological imbalance test on the earth.

In 1788, the First British Fleet arrived at Botany Bay, Australia, and established the Colony of New South Wales. This was not only the beginning of Australia’s modern history, but also the start of one of the world’s most serious ecological invasion disasters.

Two of the introduced species are harmless to humans and animals and cute creatures that can be found everywhere in our perception, but they are the "kings of invasion" of foreign species in the local area. They are cats and rabbits.

In 1859, due to the lack of mammals in the area, a farmer near Melbourne introduced 24 English hares for hunting purposes. He never expected that these rabbits would begin to reproduce wildly due to the lack of natural enemies. Within a few years, these 24 rabbits multiplied into millions. In the next 100 years, their number reached as many as 10 billion.

A large number of pastures and crops have been eaten up by crazy rabbits, and the local animal husbandry is facing a catastrophe. Australia is an arid continent with a lack of green vegetation, and the entire local ecosystem is in huge crisis.

Australians realized the disaster caused by wild rabbits and began active rabbit eradication operations, such as introducing carnivorous mammals such as foxes, trying to balance the rabbits in a natural way.

But they did not expect that after the foxes entered Australia, they not only did not bring any help, but instead contributed to the deterioration of the local ecology - these foxes did not target rabbits, but instead targeted local birds that were easier to catch, such as blue penguins and weka birds.

In the mid-1880s, Australia launched a vigorous "rabbit eradication campaign". Within two years, 1.8 million rabbits were killed in the Victorian colony, and 7 million were killed in New South Wales. However, the rabbit population has not decreased significantly, and to this day, rabbits are still the king of ecological destruction in the area.

In addition to rabbits, cats are another major ecological demon in Australia. Unlike rabbits, cats have brought direct destructive disasters to local native species: many native birds, including paradise parrots, have become extinct due to the hunting of wild cats.

Because wild cats have a wide range of diets and are agile, they quickly occupied the top of the local food chain after being introduced to Australia in 1804. Wild cats can easily hunt local native birds and reptiles.

Cats and rabbits have become a deep-rooted problem in Australia.

Generally speaking, as long as alien species do not break the constraints of the existing ecosystem, they will not cause too bad an impact. However, for specific environments, invasive species can only bring disasters.

Today, my country has become one of the countries that suffers from serious harm caused by alien species, with as many as 660 alien invasive species. In addition to the Canada goldenrod and red fire ants mentioned in this article, there are also extremely harmful invasive species such as the golden apple snail and red-eared slider.

If you see them, please report them!

Source: China National Geographic BOOK

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